Accountant s cabinet



` (No Model.) 2 .sheetsfsneet 2.

H G HUMPHREY AGUOUNTANTS CABINET.

No. 574,427. Patented Jan. 5, 1897.

Nnnms maks en. woran' line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM C. HUMPHREY, OF ANTIGO, IVISOONSIN.

ACCOUNTANTS CABINET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 574,427', dated January 5, 1897. Application filed J'une 1,1896. Serial No. 593,763. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, it 'may concern.-

Be it known that I, HIRAM C. HUMPHREY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Antigo, in the county of Lan glade and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Accountants Cabinets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention has especial reference to devices'for the simplification of bookkeeping in banks and similar institutions; and it consists in certain peculiarities of construction and arrangement of said devices, as will be fully set forth hereinafter and subsequently claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a central vertical section through my cabinet on the line l l of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of my cabinet. partly broken away or in section to better illustrate details of construction.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of one end of the cabinet, similarly partly broken away or in section. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view on the Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the naine and balance holders, showing also the blank card for the balances. Fig. 6 is a detail view on the line 6 6 'of Fig. 5.

The principal object of my invention is to do away with the labor of daily transference of the entire individual accounts of a bank or similar institution into ordinary ledgers, which is now done to ascertain the daily balance, and as a large number of these accounts are frequently in the same condition for several successive days there is considerable labor in the old system rendered unnecessary by the use of my devices, which constitute, in eifect, cabinet-ledgers themselves, as hereinafter more plainly pointed out.

Referring to the drawings,A A represent the sides, B the base, and C the back, of the outer case containing my cabinet D, which is preferably suspended within said case by means of the trunnions a a, secured to the cabinet, and boxes or bearings b b for said trunnions secured to the sides A A of the outer case.

The cabinet is made up of vertical series of iiat shallow drawers E E, (two ot' such series being shown in Fig. 2, but the number being less or more, as required,) located between longitudinal side strips F F G, and there being thin horizontal partition-boards c c secured to and extending over (and under) said side strips and alternating with them, so as to leave spaces for the said drawers E E between said side strips and partitions.

Back of each drawer is a lever H, perforated vertically near one end, and all of said levers are held in position by a pivot-pin d, extending down through said perforations and registering perforations in the partitionboards c c. The side strips F have longitudinal central openings therethrough for the reception of rods e, (having, preferably, buttons f on their outer projecting ends,) the inner ends of said rods bearing a-gainst the adjacent ends of the levers H, as shown in Fig. 3, whereby a slight pressure on one of the said buttons f will operate the lever H, and the free end of said lever will force the front of the adjacent drawer E outward, so that the drawer can be readily grasped and bodily7 removed from the cabinet. IVhen the drawer is replaced and pushed back, this will restore the lever H to its normal position and force the rod c outward again in an obvious manner. Y

The drawers E are designed each to hold the individual account of one depositor or customer, as shown in Fig. 3, and the construction of these drawers is shown in detail in Figs. l, 3, and 4, each drawer having side pieces g g, bottom h,'and front and rear pieces j. The front piece of the drawer rises to a greater height than that of the rear and side pieces, so as to practically fill up the space between each two adjacent partitionboards c c, and just above the bottom h this front piece is formed with a transverse groove 7s. The rear piece j is provided with a like transverse groove m. The object of these grooves 7c m is to securely hold the ends of the paper slips I, which contain the said individual accounts. These slips, as shown in Fig. 3, are lnade with regular ledger-rulings and have, preferably, rounded corners n fn., s o that they may be more readily slipped to place within the described grooves in the drawer, which drawers, though shallow, are deep enough to hold each several of these ICO slips. The last vert-ical series of side strips G G are solid, as of course these do not require the push-rods e of the other side pieces F.

The front pieces of the drawers are finished with the name and balance holders heretofore referred to, and illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. These consist of strips of sheet metal J, secured to the drawer-fronts, with the ends of said strips bent out and then inwardly, as shown at o o, and also bent with a double fold intermediate of the ends, as shown at 1), and with the metal at the end and intermediate bends bent in backward at the bottom, (the sheet-metal blank being a little wider at these points than at tbe other parts,) as shown at q q and r, thus forming a device in the nature of a label-holder. The wider or lefthand division of this holder J is designed to contain a card or slip having printed or written thereon the name of the depositor or customer whose individual account is in that drawer, while the narrower or right-hand division of this holder J is designed to hold a card or slip ruled for figures, on which the ascertained balance of the account in that drawer is written in the ruled columns. For convenience these balance cards or slips are ruled or printed on a long card or slip K of the proper width, subdivided by rows of perfor-ations or indentations s s at proper intervals, and these are slipped to place, as shown in Fig. 6, and then broken off by bending the card, andthe ascertained balance on the ac count-slip I within the drawer written in the appropriate columns of the portion of the card just slipped in the holder J. These cards are only changed when the balance changes, and the name-cards of course are not changed at all.

For greater convenience, when it is necessary to add together the totals of all the balances, the cabinet D is tilted on its trunnions d d, so as to form an inclined desk, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. l. This is very readily accomplished. The bottom of the cabinet is provided with a suitable handle or pull L and a hinged brace M for engagement with any of the notches N desired in or on the upper surface ofthe base B of the outer ease. \Vith this arrangement it is very easy to obtain the desired totals, as all of the balance-cards are held in the holderJ with their columns in perfect register, and hence the addition may be as readily made as if the figures were in a ledger,besides which any possible error in transference is thereby guarded against, and for comparison of t-he balance on the card with that on the account it is much quicker and more convenient to simply force out the drawer and compare the figures inside and outside at a glance than it is to turn from one book or page of a book to another.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. An accountants cabinet, comprising a suitable case, containing series of flat shallow drawers, separated by suitable partitions, series of pivoted levers arranged, one at the end of each drawer, within said case, and series of push-rods, arranged one alongside of each of said drawers, for engagement with the adjacent ends of said levers, substantially as set forth.

2. An accountants cabinet, comprising a suitable outer case having notches or serrations in or on the upper surface of its base, an inner tilting case, supported by trunnions within the said outer case and provided with a pivoted brace for engagement with said notches or serrations, series of fiat shallow drawers provided with holders for balancecards upon the outer faces thereof, series of pivoted levers foractuating said drawers, and series of pusltrods for actuating said levers, substantially as set forth.

3. In an accountants cabinet, the combination of a fiat shallow drawer, provided with interior transverse grooves at each end just above the bottom thereof, and slips of columnruled paper having rounded ends fitted within said grooves, substantially as set forth.

4. In an accountants cabinet, the combination of a fiat shallow drawer, containing slips of column-ruled paper, with a holder secured to the outer face of said drawer, and a card in said holder ruled in columns to correspond with the ruling of the slips within said drawer, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand, at Antigo, in the county of Langlade and State of Wisconsin, in the presence of two witnesses.

I'IIRAM C. HUMPI-IREY.

Witnesses:

J'. H. TREVER, Orro P. WALCH. 

